Organizations such as financial institutions are responsible for maintaining a large number of data feeds. These data feeds are typically produced at certain times of the day and delivered in electronic form to various users. An example of a data feed is a spreadsheet file containing information obtained from a database. A typical recipient would be an employee in the organization such as a financial analyst.
Typically, a computer program must be written in a high-level language such as C++ or JAVA for each data feed which is desired. Thus, an end-user who wishes to have information obtained from a database would have a special program written by a programmer that defines the database to access along with the SQL commands to execute. The program would need to interact with various systems to have the information sent to the recipient in the proper format.
Unfortunately, the conventional approach has many drawbacks. Each request for information requires a programmer to code a separate program. Because of the expertise required for this task, it often takes a considerable amount of time to implement even a relatively simple request. Furthermore, this approach leads to a proliferation of programs written in a variety of different languages that can be difficult and expensive to maintain. Accordingly, improved methods and systems for managing a plurality of data feeds are needed.